Medical treatment in India from Papua New Guinea

Plan the whole trip before you leave

From Port Moresby the journey involves multiple connections and a very long total travel time. Returning for a second visit is expensive enough that it should be treated as a last resort, which changes how the trip is best organised.

1. Send everything you have before booking anything: scans as DICOM files, pathology, discharge summaries, medication list. The more complete the picture, the less has to be redone on arrival.
2. Settle the diagnosis remotely if you can. Where it is not firm, expect that establishing it in India takes days, and build that into the length of the trip rather than assuming treatment starts in week one.
3. Ask what can be combined. Two joints instead of one, a health check for an accompanying relative, a diagnostic work-up alongside treatment. The marginal cost of adding something is small; the cost of a second trip is not.
4. Budget generously for the stay. Every package price on this site excludes accommodation, and a complication that extends a stay by two weeks is far harder to absorb from PNG than from a country three hours away.
5. Keep the return flexible. Fitness to fly after major surgery is a clinical decision, and on a journey this long it is not one to compress.

Getting there

Routings from Port Moresby generally go via Singapore, Manila or Brisbane, with at least one and often two connections. Check transit visa requirements for the connecting country, which catch people out and are expensive to fix at an airport.

Airline routes, mission locations and visa requirements change. Everything on this page is an orientation, not a timetable: confirm current routes with the airline and current visa requirements with the Indian mission before you book anything.

What PNG patients travel for

• Cancer. The most common reason, driven largely by limited local access to radiotherapy and to specialist oncology. See radiation therapy.
• Cardiac surgery, including rheumatic valve disease, which remains common in the Pacific, and congenital heart defects in children.
• Kidney transplant at $12,500, with a living near-relative donor under the donor rules.
• Joint replacement, knees from $3,700 and hips from $4,500.
• Neurosurgery and spine surgery, where specialist capacity is limited locally.

Visa and documents

India maintains a High Commission in Port Moresby. The medical visa follows the hospital's invitation letter, which follows the specialist review and written estimate. Apply for a medical attendant visa for your companion at the same time. Given the journey, do not book flights until the visas are actually issued. See our medical visa guide.

What to bring

• Scan images as DICOM files on a CD or USB, not only the reports
• Every previous discharge summary and pathology report you can obtain
• Current medicines in original packaging, with generic names listed
• Enough medication for the whole trip plus a generous margin
• Children's vaccination and growth records if travelling for a child

Money

Hospital bills are settled in Indian rupees or in US dollars depending on the hospital. The kina is not convertible in India, so plan on transferring funds or carrying US dollars rather than expecting to change money on arrival. Ask the hospital's international patient office which payment methods they accept before you travel, and be aware that international card limits catch people out when a large deposit is requested. Arranging a bank transfer in advance is usually simpler than everything else.

Budget beyond the package price. Every cost table on this site excludes flights, visa, accommodation outside the hospital stay, pre-operative investigations and treatment for complications. Build in a contingency, because the most common reason a trip becomes stressful is a stay that runs longer than planned.

After you go home

This is the part of medical travel that most often goes wrong, and it is entirely preventable. Before you leave India, make sure you have your discharge summary and treatment record in writing, your medication list with generic drug names rather than only Indian brand names, a clear follow-up schedule, and the name of a doctor in Papua New Guinea who will take over your monitoring.

Then check, before you fly, that the specific medicines you have been prescribed are available and affordable where you live. Anti-rejection medication after a transplant, blood thinners after a mechanical heart valve, and thyroid hormone after thyroid surgery all have to continue without interruption. A treatment that succeeds in hospital and fails at home for want of a tablet is the outcome all of this planning exists to prevent. Follow-up consultations continue by video.

Related

• All treatments in India
• Medical visa for India
• How the teleconsultation works
• All country guides
• Our partner hospitals